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LampLight - Volume 2
This second annual anthology from LampLight Magazine collects the four great issues from September 2013 to June 2014
Includes the complete novella, The Devoted, featuring Jonathan Crowley, by James A Moore.
Fiction and interviews from our featured writers: Norman Prentiss, Kealan Patrick Burke, Mary SanGiovanni and Holly Newstein.
J.F. Gonzalez continues his history of the genre in his Shadows in the Attic series. LampLight Classics brings you some great classic stories.
Fiction by: Michael Knost, Christopher Bleakley, Emma Whitehall, David Tallerman, M. R. Jordan, Lauren Forry, Dave Thomas, Arinn Dembo, Bracken MacLeod, doung jai, Tim W Boiteau, Alethea Eason, Lucy A Snyder, Colleen Jurkiewicz, Curtis James McConnell, Victor Cypert, Catherine Grant
Includes the complete novella, The Devoted, featuring Jonathan Crowley, by James A Moore.
Fiction and interviews from our featured writers: Norman Prentiss, Kealan Patrick Burke, Mary SanGiovanni and Holly Newstein.
J.F. Gonzalez continues his history of the genre in his Shadows in the Attic series. LampLight Classics brings you some great classic stories.
Fiction by: Michael Knost, Christopher Bleakley, Emma Whitehall, David Tallerman, M. R. Jordan, Lauren Forry, Dave Thomas, Arinn Dembo, Bracken MacLeod, doung jai, Tim W Boiteau, Alethea Eason, Lucy A Snyder, Colleen Jurkiewicz, Curtis James McConnell, Victor Cypert, Catherine Grant
468 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 28, 2015
I'd like to let everyone in on a little secret -- Jacob Haddon has taste.
I've read some uninspired anthologies/compilations recently. Thus, I was delighted to find that the first few stories in LAMPLIGHT VOLUME TWO felt like a breath of fresh air. As I continued reading, that wee wisp of breath became a veritable hurricane.
More of a digest than an actual anthology, I'm not quite sure what the underlying concept of LAMPLIGHT is. But, whatever it is, it's marvelous. Let the reader be warned, however. This volume is far from traditional and, in fact, I'd be tempted to call it a hodge podge were it not so skillfully assembled. The contents run the gamut from short fiction to novella to scholarly articles to author interview and, in many ways, it reads more like a magazine than anything else. Readers of traditional anthologies may be thrown off a bit by the format. My advice to them is to persevere; their constancy will be rewarded as there are gems scattered consistently throughout the volume.
VOLUME TWO opens with a short Jonathan Crowley novella by James A. Moore. For years, Moore has been working on-and-off in the fictional universe where his characters Crowley, Ruffo the Clown and others exist, with every story giving tantalizing hints as to his characters' originas, their true natures and their motivations. "The Devoted" is no exception.
After the novella, four featured authors lead the pack: Norman Prentiss, Kealan Patrick Burke, Mary San Giovanni and Holly Newstein. A short interview with each author follows every story. Thereafter, LAMPLIGHT begins to take on aspects of a more traditional anthology, offering a selection of short stories that are, without exception, solid pieces of work from some very talented authors.
Haddon's taste in fiction, while exquisite, does not often tend toward the "easy" read. Fortunately, he eschews over-written ostentatiously "literary" refuse in favor of stories which are most often deceptively simple, plainly written and yet pack a punch. Often, the prose is so engaging that it is not until the reader has finished reading that the thoughts inspired by the piece begin to percolate in one's head.
While the stories are universally engaging, there are some stand-out pieces. Specifically Bracken MacLeod's "Reminisce" begins innocuously; gradually MacLeod layers on the creepiness to create a truly chilling little tale.
"The Killing of Kitty Cahill" by Colleen Jurkiewicz is a remarkably subtle piece of fiction on a par with Flannery O'Conner and other greats of the Southern Gothic style. Prior to LAMPLIGHT, I was completely unfamiliar with Jurkiewicz's work. But,if she's got more to offer of this nature, I would not be surprised if, some time in the future, her work is required reading in college short fiction courses.
The pinnacle of skill and creativity in this volume, however, can be found in Althea Eason's "The Boys From Burnell." It is a ghost story unlike any other I have read, breathing new life (you should pardon the expression" into the tired old haunted house trope. Eason's writing is so subtle, yet so compelling, that upon finishing my first reading of this story, I immediately turned back to the first page and read it again. A third reading, several days later, did not disappoint; each pass through her prose revealed something new.
The reader receives of the real treats in LAMPLIGHT VOLUME TWO once Haddon abandons fiction (Only temporarily, fortunately!) to present a series of articles by the late J. F. Gonzalez. In four snippets of approximately 40 pages in the aggregate, Gonzalez provides a delightful overview of the horror genre throughout the ages. Even better, Gonzalez is not stingy with his examples. For several days after I finished reading these essays, I prowled the internet and was delighted to discover that many of the works he cites are available to read in the public domain. The search was worth it in every case.
After Gonzalez's articles, the focus of LAMPLIGHT shifts again. Haddon features four vintage tales of horror, all of which were completely unfamiliar to me. Each is a delicious nugget and one wonders why work from these authors is not re-printed more often.
In sum, LAMPLIGHT is an impressive collection of literature, eminently suitable for addition to the library of any horror aficionado. If I have ONE gripe about the LAMPLIGHT series, it is that the titles are basically the same and all of the covers are terribly similar. On Amazon or Goodreads, I can see how it would be very easy for a reader to become confused as to what they had already read. I suppose one wouldn't mind terribly purchasing the same book twice as one could always read it again. By the same token, it would be terribly frustrating to know that, due to the duplication, there's still another volume out there that you haven't gotten to yet!
Highly, highly recommended.
I've read some uninspired anthologies/compilations recently. Thus, I was delighted to find that the first few stories in LAMPLIGHT VOLUME TWO felt like a breath of fresh air. As I continued reading, that wee wisp of breath became a veritable hurricane.
More of a digest than an actual anthology, I'm not quite sure what the underlying concept of LAMPLIGHT is. But, whatever it is, it's marvelous. Let the reader be warned, however. This volume is far from traditional and, in fact, I'd be tempted to call it a hodge podge were it not so skillfully assembled. The contents run the gamut from short fiction to novella to scholarly articles to author interview and, in many ways, it reads more like a magazine than anything else. Readers of traditional anthologies may be thrown off a bit by the format. My advice to them is to persevere; their constancy will be rewarded as there are gems scattered consistently throughout the volume.
VOLUME TWO opens with a short Jonathan Crowley novella by James A. Moore. For years, Moore has been working on-and-off in the fictional universe where his characters Crowley, Ruffo the Clown and others exist, with every story giving tantalizing hints as to his characters' originas, their true natures and their motivations. "The Devoted" is no exception.
After the novella, four featured authors lead the pack: Norman Prentiss, Kealan Patrick Burke, Mary San Giovanni and Holly Newstein. A short interview with each author follows every story. Thereafter, LAMPLIGHT begins to take on aspects of a more traditional anthology, offering a selection of short stories that are, without exception, solid pieces of work from some very talented authors.
Haddon's taste in fiction, while exquisite, does not often tend toward the "easy" read. Fortunately, he eschews over-written ostentatiously "literary" refuse in favor of stories which are most often deceptively simple, plainly written and yet pack a punch. Often, the prose is so engaging that it is not until the reader has finished reading that the thoughts inspired by the piece begin to percolate in one's head.
While the stories are universally engaging, there are some stand-out pieces. Specifically Bracken MacLeod's "Reminisce" begins innocuously; gradually MacLeod layers on the creepiness to create a truly chilling little tale.
"The Killing of Kitty Cahill" by Colleen Jurkiewicz is a remarkably subtle piece of fiction on a par with Flannery O'Conner and other greats of the Southern Gothic style. Prior to LAMPLIGHT, I was completely unfamiliar with Jurkiewicz's work. But,if she's got more to offer of this nature, I would not be surprised if, some time in the future, her work is required reading in college short fiction courses.
The pinnacle of skill and creativity in this volume, however, can be found in Althea Eason's "The Boys From Burnell." It is a ghost story unlike any other I have read, breathing new life (you should pardon the expression" into the tired old haunted house trope. Eason's writing is so subtle, yet so compelling, that upon finishing my first reading of this story, I immediately turned back to the first page and read it again. A third reading, several days later, did not disappoint; each pass through her prose revealed something new.
The reader receives of the real treats in LAMPLIGHT VOLUME TWO once Haddon abandons fiction (Only temporarily, fortunately!) to present a series of articles by the late J. F. Gonzalez. In four snippets of approximately 40 pages in the aggregate, Gonzalez provides a delightful overview of the horror genre throughout the ages. Even better, Gonzalez is not stingy with his examples. For several days after I finished reading these essays, I prowled the internet and was delighted to discover that many of the works he cites are available to read in the public domain. The search was worth it in every case.
After Gonzalez's articles, the focus of LAMPLIGHT shifts again. Haddon features four vintage tales of horror, all of which were completely unfamiliar to me. Each is a delicious nugget and one wonders why work from these authors is not re-printed more often.
In sum, LAMPLIGHT is an impressive collection of literature, eminently suitable for addition to the library of any horror aficionado. If I have ONE gripe about the LAMPLIGHT series, it is that the titles are basically the same and all of the covers are terribly similar. On Amazon or Goodreads, I can see how it would be very easy for a reader to become confused as to what they had already read. I suppose one wouldn't mind terribly purchasing the same book twice as one could always read it again. By the same token, it would be terribly frustrating to know that, due to the duplication, there's still another volume out there that you haven't gotten to yet!
Highly, highly recommended.
September 9, 2022
Great collection- loved the horror western novella by James A. Moore and the genre historical review by J.F. Gonzalez. Jacob Haddon did a great job pulling LampLight together for as long as it ran. I particularly enjoyed the stories by Norman Prentiss, Kealan Patrick Burke and Mary SanGiovanni (which somehow evoked New Jersey horror without a visit to the pine barrens). The short stories were strong throughout (including a scattering of old classics).
January 29, 2017
I thought the second anthology was stronger than the first. The structure is similar - a varied selection of contemporary dark and weird short stories, flash fictions, a novella, author interviews, a column on the evolution of horror stories and four genre classics. As before, the stories are written in a fairly straightforward manner - without layers of metaphor and poetic language - but this serves the genre well and helps the anthology remain consistent. A very enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews